Jen and Dan's visit

Where did the time go. It seems like they just got here and they left today. It was sure great having them here. They got a lot accomplished while here. They painted the front bedroom and laid vinyl floor tile down. Dan also fixed any holes in the walls and re-textured where he patched. They also did the hall bathroom. We painted the vanity cabinet, put in a new toilet,towel bars, and moved the toilet paper holder to a different wall. Dan repaired holes in the bathroom too. Since we decided to put in a new toilet we used the same floor tiles from the bedroom for the bathroom. We also put in a new light fixture over the mirror. It is so bright in there now. The rooms look so nice now. I still need to get new baseboard for both rooms but I think I can put that down with no problems.
Here are a few pictures from Christmas.



You can probably make out who the pictures are of. The one is from Connor's baptism, there is one of Kennedy and Karson giving Connor a bottle, and the rest is of our family. Hope you enjoy them.

Almost Christmas

Well here it is almost Christmas. Next week at this time it will all be over. Connor will be 3 months old on Christmas Day. He is getting so cute. He coos and talks to you. He holds his head up pretty well. I get to watch him several times a week while Amber and Scott are at work.
Jennifer and Dan get here this coming Wednesday. They can't wait to meet their nephew. We are going to have him on Christmas Eve and are going to take him to the Christmas Eve service. While Jen and Dan are here they are going to paint the bathroom, put down floor tile in the spare room and also paint it. I have already pulled the carpet and have the floor prepared for them.
Took George to the neurologist this week. He said that his muscle tone was fine. He has changed the dose of the steroid to one tablet a day and will see how he does. His mental problems haven't changed and the psychiatrist can't give any answers as to why he does the things that he does. Most days he sits around in his underwear, he refuses to put on his robe, or he stays in bed all day. He won't even fix himself something to eat. I have to pour his cereal and leave it on the counter for him to add the milk when he gets up to take his pills, I then will make him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and leave them in the fridge for lunch along with a coke or water with crystal lite in it, he won't even microwave himself a TV dinner. The only thing the doctor said was that we might have to consider putting him in a nursing home. I would think the mental health facility would be better but we will wait and see.
Here are a couple new pictures of Connor from the other day. Hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

I hadn't realized how long it had been since I posted.
Connor turned 2 months old this past week. He weighs 10lbs 14oz. as of this past Monday. He is growing like a weed. These pictures are from Thanksgiving.Cousin Amber holding Connor
Cousin Kennedy holding ConnorDaddy and Connor
Mommy, daddy & Connor
We went to Jerry and Shirley's house, everyone brought something. It was a great meal. Jerry cooked the turkey out on the grill. It was delicious! After dinner we played nickelly(not sure of the spelling)Jerry was the big winner. Scott and Amber won the Dallas Cowboy football pool and I won the first half of the Texas-Texas A&M game. We all had a good time.
Took George back to the doctor this week. The doctor changed his dosage of his medication to see if that does anything. He stays in bed for days only getting up to take his pills. I will make him sandwiches and leave them in the fridge. I don't know what I'm going to do with him. The doctor said we might have to put him in a nursing home if nothing works. We'll wait and see. He got a letter today from Medicare and his kicks in on March 2010, only 90 more days to go.
Jen and Dan are coming down here to spend Christmas and get to know their new nephew. Can't wait for them to get here. We are also going to have Connor baptized while they are here.
Not much new with me, I'm kinda at a stand still. I fluctuate between 191 and 195. My left knee has been bothering me but that isn't really keeping me down. I bought some of that "Move Free" but the pills are so big and they taste awful crushed. I have to see what else I could take to help it. The good news is that I bought me two pairs of jeans. One pair is a size 20W and the other is an 18W. I can't remember when I wore those sizes. I washed the 20W tonight so I'm curious to see if they shrunk at all. They fit a little big anyway so it would be okay if they shrink a little. Here's a new picture of me. I have the jeans on.
I put a rinse on my hair this past Wednesday evening so the pictures at Thanksgiving my hair is darker. I don't think that I will get the senior citizen discount anymore since my hair isn't gray.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, I will post again around Christmas.

This video was taken of Jeremy getting his birthday cake and what he did with it. He was so cute, we think he will have blue frosting in his ear for a long time.
This video is from Ambers party last night. The little kids had fun jumping on the trampoline. I even laid on it and had the kids bounce me. When I got up I could barely walk and thought I would really be sore today but I'm not. Maybe next time I will get up on it and bounce myself. That would make for an interesting video. Enjoy.

Busy weekend

We have had a busy two weeks here. First, of course, the birth of our grandson Connor. Then it was a buzz of birthdays. My niece Amber's birthday was on Sept. 30th, she turned 7. Her party was to have been last weekend but she had gotten sick and so was posponed until today, Oct. 11th. Then my nephew Jeremy's birthday is Oct. 13th and his party was last night Oct. 10th. Fun was had at both parties. I am trying to download video that I took at both parties. Hope that they both download here.

Grampa meets grandson

The kids got to come home finally yesterday afternoon. We went over later and George got to meet his grandson. I took this picture of the 3 generations of Ericson's.
I think this is a sweet picture of Scott and Connor.
Amber is glad to be home and able to sleep in her own bed. Hopefully Connor let her get some sleep last night. Will check in with them later.
George has a doctors appointment this morning and then have to pick up Hollie and Jeremy. I think we might run out to Target to return an outfit and then have to pick up George's medicine from K Mart. It should be an interesting day.This picture is Amber with Connor and her two nieces, Nicole and Madison.

baby Connor

Here is a video that Scott shot this morning. When they took Connor to the nursery this morning to check him out they detected a heart murmur so they won't release him today. Amber is staying the extra day with him. He did finally nurse this morning for 15 minutes. I am taking the kids their dinner in the hospital this evening. I had to shorten it a little because it wasn't downloading. Hope you enjoy the video. I haven't been able to get the video to upload. But the good news is that Connor does not have a murmur. The cardiologist came and checked him out and said that he is fine. They still didn't let them out today, they say he is jaundice. He is nursing better and that should help a lot. Another piece of good news is that I finally got to go in and see him. I took Amber and Scott their lasagna dinner and Scott talked the head nurse into letting me go back and see him. I am posting those pics here. He is adorable.




Judi is going to try and help me to get the video posted. I took the camcorder to her but forgot to take the cords to hook it up to the computer. I'll get more video when they come home tomorrow.

We're Grandparents!!!!!

George and I became grandparents at 4:23pm. Connor Alan Ericson. Here are the particulars for him. He is 7lbs 9oz, 20 inches,born on 9/25/09. . Amber and Connor are doing fine. Scott is on Cloud 9. I think I am too! I have only gotten to see him in pictures so far. The hospital has tightened their visitation on the maternity floor so only Scott and Amber's mom are able to go in. I am going to take Scott my video camera tomorrow morning and have him shoot a little video and then bring me back the camera. If all goes well they should come home tomorrow afternoon or early evening. I am planning on making them dinner and taking it over to them so that I can meet the little guy. I should then have more pictures to post. & 4:23pm. Will now have more to post than just info on me. Enjoy

New Adventures

Since my last entry a lot has happened. Jen and Dan came down the end of August and surprised us. They had told us that they were taking a trip to Vegas before they moved down to Illinois. They had mile tickets that had to be used. They showed up at my nieces on the 21st of Aug. It was a very nice surprise. They were staying until Monday. Everyone knew but us, my sister even planned a BBQ for that Sunday. Everything was going fine until Sunday evening, George has been having problems with weakness in his legs and it got really bad on Sunday. When we left my sisters we took him straight to the hospital. With all the tests that they took they decided that he has dermatomyositis. He had had a rash on his face and the weakness in his legs was all tied together. They took a muscle biopsy while he was there. They started him on steriods and things picked up. He is doing much better and getting around without a walker. Jen and Dan changed their plans and stayed until Wednesday. That was a big help. Now on to some better stuff. There was a baby shower for Amber on the 29th and she got a lot of neat stuff for Connor. It was a fun time. Denise's little one Jeremy started walking. He is so cute. I have taken video of him and will try to post it here. Also we became a three dog family again. I know I'm crazy, but I love dogs. We went to the pound and they had the cutest little black lab mix. She has the same markings on her as one of the other dogs that we use to have. The other dogs are warming up to her and she is getting the handle of going out the doggie door. Hopefully the housebreaking won't be so bad. I went to Curves this past Saturday, I haven't been there for over two weeks. The owner took my measurements and said when I came in this week she would make me a copy of them. In the year that I have been going there the only measurement that I can recall is my waist and I lost about 20 inches there alone. When I get the other figures I'll put them in the next post. According to my scale yesterday I was at 190 lbs. that means I have lost a total of 247 lbs. WOO HOO!!! Now to try to find out about getting all this extra skin taken off. That's all for now.

A lot going on

Since my last post a lot has happened. I had my 18 month check-up. All is well, still need to up my protein. My surgeon, Dr. Camacho, is suppose to be coming down for a visit in October. I have told Dr. Reyes he had better let me know when he is here because I would really like to see him and show off the new ME. He said he would. Paula Kilgore the baractric coordinator asked me if I would speak at the next support group meeting in Sept. because I had gone to the OH Event in Chicago. I said that I would, even though I normally don't go to the Tuesday group meeting.
George has been getting weaker and weaker. Finally Sunday night we took him to the hospital. They have diagnosed him with Dermatomyositis, what a mouth full to say. It is a muscle and skin disease. It is one of the Muscular Dystrophy myopathies. I am going to see if we can get assistance from MDA. He came home today after 5 days in the hospital. He is getting better. He is on prednisone and a few other drugs. He retained so much fluid in the hospital that his pants didn't fit him when we got him dressed to come home. I got him some knit pants that have a lot of stretch to them, that should work for a while.
Oh I forgot to say that Jen and Dan surprised us on Friday afternoon. They had said they were going to Vegas for the weekend, imagine my surprise when they knocked on the door at Denise's and walked in. I cried. It was so good to see them and have them here for moral support with her dad. The whole family was in on the surprise. They stayed a few extra days after putting George in the hospital. Hopefully things will get back to semi normal now that he is home. I will be taking him with me where ever I go. Now for a few pictures. We took some at my sister's Sunday night of our family and then there's one of me taken at church. Enjoy

Just an update

Not much happening right now. Thought I should update some.
I have gotten down to 195lbs. That means that I have lost 242lbs. since I started this. I have really amazed myself. I knew in my heart that I could do this, but didn't think I would do as well as I have. I still have great support and that helps a lot.
I went to my support group meeting tonight. Our leader wanted me to tell the group about my experience at the ObesityHelp Event that I went to in Chicago. My fear was that we would have a large group tonight and it was just the opposite. There was only two other ladies that came, but I told them all about it. While talking about it Dr. Reyes came in and looked at the pictures that I had taken and commented on the one of Dr. Garth Davis. He is friends with Garth's brother, while Dr. Camacho is friends with Garth. Dr. Reyes also said that Dr. Camacho was coming down for a visit in a couple of months. I told him that I would really like to see him when he is here and would they call me when he was going to be at the office. He said that he would. I will have to let the office know that I want to see him in case that Dr. Reyes forgets.
I have an appointment with Dr. Reyes next month for my 18 month check-up. I will need to get my blood work done next week to make sure it is back in time for the appt.
George had a doctors appt. this morning with the neurologist. He has prescribed a medicine that should help him with his walking. He will start the medicine tomorrow. He has to take it 4 times a day at specific times. The effects of the pill only last 4 hours, so he has to take it at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm doesn't have to take it after that, so we will see how it goes.

These pics were taken while visiting at my brothers. We got to spend 4 days with Jen and Dan, it was great!

Had a great time in Chicago

Well here I am back home and thought that I should post my activities.
I went to Chicago to go to an ObesityHelp Event. It was great. I met a lot of people that had the gastric bypass or the lapband. Believe it or not, I was the one that had lost the most weight of everybody there. I couldn't believe it. I didn't win anything, but got nicknamed TEXAS while there. I was the only one from Texas. I did get to meet Dr. Garth Davis from Big Medicine and had my picture taken with him. Also the therapist that they have, Mary Jo Rapinni, was there and her session was really interesting.
After the event, Jen and Dan picked me up and we went to my mother-in-laws for a little party and to pick up George. Then we went back to my brother Kens house for the rest of the visit. I really enjoyed spending time with Jen and Dan. Jen and I went shopping for Scott and Amber's baby that is due in October. We bought so much stuff I had to buy another suitcase to get it home. I have saved some of the clothes for when they have a baby shower. I gave them some of the clothes. We got a lot of Chicago Cubs outfits and a few Bears things. They really liked all that I brought.
Got to spend time with my new little niece, Maggie. She is adorable. Her sister and brother just adore her. Her cousins Lily and Jack can't seem to get enough of her either when they were around. Jack not so much cause he is only 1 1/2 years old, but his big sis Lily is like all girls wanting to give kisses to the baby.
All in all I had a great time, even tho the weather wasn't the best at times. It was cool and rainy for half the time. We did get a bike ride in one afternoon and about a half hour after getting back it started to rain. Hope you like the few pics I'm posting.
These two pics are of my nieces and nephews. The ones at the picnic table are Left to right, Lily, Kit and little Jack, and the other picture because you couldn't see Fionn at the picnic table is Fionn on the left and little Jack on the right

I'm in Chicago

Got to Chicago today. Had a great flight. I was so excited to fly because I haven't flown since last September. I am proud to say that I didn't need extensions for the seat belts, in fact I had plenty of room and was able to pull them tight and have about a foot of belt that I didn't need. I also fit in the seat with room to spare and was able to put down the tray table and in went all the way down and didn't hit me in the stomache.
My niece Shannon had her baby this morning, a little girl, Maggie Joan she is adorable.
Well that is all for now. Its cold here, about 59 this evening. Will post more later.

Yay, No More Oxygen!!!!!

Hi everyone, Its been a while since I posted. Well today I went to see the pulmonologist and had a great check-up. I don't have to sleep with the oxygen anymore and I don't have to see him either, unless I have problems. That's one doctor down one more to go (heart doc). I don't see him until Sept. I think. I will have to continue with the doc that did the surgery every 6 months for blood work to make sure all my levels are okay.
Now on to other news. For those that don't know, Scott and his fiance,Amber are expecting a baby boy in Oct. They will get married after the baby is born.
As for me, I am doing great. Getting ready to go to Chicago next week to see family and also to go to an ObesityHelp Event. That is a web site that is for weight loss surgery, either the lap band or the gastric bypass. I was really excited when I saw they were having one in Chicago. I can't wait to see the family up there. I haven't seen any of them since Jen and Dan's wedding. I have lost about 60lbs since I was up there. I made my goal of weighing 200lbs by June 1st, so I have officially lost 237lbs total since I began my journey of weight loss. I have gone from a size 4-5X to a medium/large, and bra size from a 54-56 FF to a 38D. I went to a women's health fair this past Saturday and they had a bra fitter from Dillards there to measure you, boy I'm glad I got measured. I also can't wait to get on the plane and not have to ask for a seatbelt extension, and I'm planning on walking at the airports not get a wheelchair for me, the big test will be at Midway because that will be the loooonng walk to get our baggage.
George is doing okay. His new meds seem to help. I will get him a wheelchair at the airports. He walks very slow and seems to almost walk stiff legged. He sees his counselor on Monday, I don't think he sees the doctor until July, will wait and see.
I'm putting a new picture here. It was taken on May 27th at church(where else)by my friend Jody. The other pic of me in a swimsuit, sorry its sideways, I'm not sure why it is since I changed the setting, oh well, you can still see me and all my wrinkles and loose skin. Well that's all for now, will post pics after my trip to Chicago.

On my way to Goal

Well I didn't make my birthday goal. I did get down to 210 pounds. That means that I have lost 227 pounds since my journey began 18 months ago.

I went to Curves today and did my 30 minutes and then went to Target and walked the store then came home and went for a 20 minute bike ride around the neighborhood. Not bad for a 55 year old.

I have also joined water aerobics again. I will go to that on Monday and Friday mornings. It lasts an hour and it is continuous exercise, the only time we stop is to get our water dumbbells to use. It is a lot of fun.

I promised a couple of new photos. The one is from Easter last year with Kennedy and then this Easter so you can compare. The other is from Olin Miles for our church directory and then one taken from a friend at our church's Food Pantry.

Everyone here is doing good. I don't know if everyone has heard that I will be a grandma in October. Scott and his fiance Amber are going to be parents. I'm all excited. No date for the wedding yet, but I think they are just going to go to the JP and let us know afterwards. But I will let everyone know what happens.

George seems to be doing better. The new medication seems to be working. We will keep our fingers crossed that it continues to work.

Hope you like the pics.

6 month checkup with Heart doc.

I had my 6 month check up with my heart doctor yesterday. Everything is fine. He said that "there's nothing that I can do for you, see you in 6 months". He told me to get more exercise, but that everything was great. I told him that I had joined Curves and that I ride my bike about 3 1/2 miles several times a week.

I am currently at losing 216 lbs. since I started my journey. Only 3 pounds to go to have halved my weight, and only 21 lbs. till I reach my birthday goal. All in all everything is going great.

My son Scott got engaged the day before Valentines Day. He asked his girlfriend, Amber to marry him and she said yes. No date as of yet, but will let everyone know when I know. Well that's all for now. No new pictures to post yet, but will get some soon.

One year check-up

I went up to see the doctor today for my year check-up since the surgery. All is great. He said that I am doing great. My blood work was good. My protein is still down a little but he wasn't concerned. I don't have to see him again for 6 months. I also went to support group last night. It was interesting. I have been going to Curves for exercise and riding my bike, but haven't been doing any weights. Dr. Reyes said that we needed to do weights also. I will start out slow, I have 2 pound weights and will work on my arms to start. Other than that all is great. I have lost 205 lbs altogether. As soon as the wind dies down I will get out on the bike again.
Will keep everyone updated.

I can't believe that it has been a year already!

A year ago today I was in the hospital all drugged up. I can't believe it has been a year since I had my gastric bypass. I want to thank everyone for their encouragement and support during this time.

The first goal that I set for myself was to lose a 100 lbs., then 150 lbs., and then 200 lbs. Well I hit the 200 lbs. lost this past weekend. The next goal that I have placed upon myself is to get down to weighing 200 lbs. by my birthday. A friend told me today that she did the calculations on my weight loss and I averaged 4 lbs. a week. If I could continue that I will make it plus more for my birthday.

I have had to buy a new wardrobe for myself. All my outgrown clothes I have donated to our church's clothes closet that we have along with the food pantry.

I went today and did my lab work for the doctor. I don't actually see him until the 10th of February. I hope everything is fine. I have been doing more protein and that is the only thing that has ever been low.

I will have to take some new pictures to post. The ones from Christmas Eve is the latest taken. Our church is doing a new picture directory and will be having pics done by Olan Mills. When I get those I will post them along with the old one from the last directory.

I will keep everyone up to date as I go on. Hope everyone has a great year.